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Advance Your Leadership. Influence Real Change.

Bingham Fellows is the region’s premier leadership experience for senior-level professionals. Over 11 months, participants build advanced capabilities in strategy, change management, and cross-sector collaboration while working on high-impact projects that address real community challenges. You’ll elevate your leadership, expand your influence, and create meaningful change within your organization and across the region. 

As a Bingham Fellow, you’ll gain visibility, building powerful relationships, and contribute to work that matters. It’s a smart investment for your career and your company.

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INTERESTED IN BINGHAM FELLOWS?

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Who It’s For

Senior leaders with a drive to lead civic and organizational change. Ideal candidates have a track record of leadership and community engagement, and are ready to bring their expertise and openness to new perspectives into a dynamic, project-based learning environment.

Innovation in Action

Participants tackle complex, civic-scale problems using innovation frameworks, change management, and adaptive leadership tools. It’s a high-value space for learning how to lead through ambiguity – skills that translate directly back to business challenges.

Cross-Sector Influence & Network

Work alongside influential leaders from across industries and sectors – business, government, and nonprofit – resulting in smarter solutions and broader impact. The resulting network opens doors to strategic collaborations and enhances your organization’s position in the civic landscape.

Real-World Impact & Executive Visibility

Bingham Fellows project teams lead high-profile community projects with real stakeholders and real outcomes, guided by local and national thought leaders. Each class of Fellows culminates in a public presentation, gaining visibility, support, and real-world momentum.

About the Experience

The program spans 11 months and includes one full-day session each month, one mandatory two-day overnight retreat, and flexible team time outside of class. SEE PROGRAM CALENDAR. While rigorous, the schedule is designed with executive calendars in mind. It’s a focused investment with returns that last a lifetime.

How to Participate

Individuals apply through our online application. Tuition for the Bingham Fellows program is $5,200. Limited tuition assistance is available for nonprofit or small business leaders. The deadline to apply for the next class is October 14, 2025. See FAQ below for more details.

TESTIMONIALS

"My Bingham Fellows experience provided the opportunity to center authentic local voices of impacted people - that identified solutions to our community’s most pressing issues. As leaders in this network, we should work to invest in the growth of their ideas and encourage others to do so."

Daryle W. Unseld Jr., BF ‘18
President & CEO | Boys & Girls Clubs of Kentuckiana

“Bingham Fellows connected me to the most passionate group of community leaders- all committed to making change and creating a top-tier city. We learned from one another, challenged one another and worked together to create programs with real impact and change for ‘a Greater Louisville.’ I am so proud to call my classmates friends, colleagues and leaders that are making a difference, not only in their professional careers, but in living their values for a better community.”

Heather Weston Bell
Senior VP for Community Engagement | Kentucky Performing Arts

“The Bingham Fellows class was an excellent way to meet colleagues-turned-friends from a cross-sector of Louisville's professional community. I would never have gotten to know so many smart, fun, and creative leaders had it not been for this year-long program. What makes it stand out from other programs is the in-depth exploration of a community-wide challenge and the opportunity to use our collective skills, knowledge, and network to find unique solutions. I was able to expand both my professional and social network through the Bingham Fellows program.”

Xiao Yin Zhao
Executive Director | World Affairs Council of KY/So. IN

frequently asked questions about bingham fellows

Bingham Fellows is for experienced leaders who want to grow their impact and build a legacy of leadership within their organization and community.

Ideal candidates are:

  • Senior professionals from all industries and sectors, often alumni of Leadership Louisville or another Leadership Louisville Center program

  • Typically over 35, with a strong title and significant professional experience

  • Actively engaged in civic or community efforts

  • Ready to lead meaningful change and commit to a year-long, project-based experience that includes monthly full-day sessions and collaborative team work between sessions

Whether you bring subject-matter expertise or a fresh perspective, you’ll join a diverse, high-performing cohort working together to address one of Louisville’s most pressing challenges.

Experiences in the Bingham Fellows program include:

  • Interactive Learning Experiences focused on high-impact skills (see below “What leadership capabilities will I gain through this program?”)
  • In-depth learning around a critical community issue, explored through expert panels, field trips, and facilitated dialogue with local and national thought leader and subject matter experts related to the annual theme.
  • Collaborative team-based project work, where participants apply new tools and mindsets in real time to develop and launch initiatives.
  • A mid-year innovation retreat to generate breakthrough project ideas using human-centered design and creative thinking strategies.
  • Public presentation and launch of project initiatives, providing visibility, momentum, and the opportunity to influence real change across Louisville.

Bingham Fellows builds advanced leadership capacity through immersive, real-world learning. Participants gain skills that directly impact their effectiveness as leaders, collaborators, and changemakers – within their organizations and in the broader community.

Key skills developed include:

  • Navigating Difficult Conversations: Build confidence in leading honest, high-stakes dialogue across differences while fostering a culture of respect and collaboration.

  • Driving Innovation: Learn a practical, repeatable innovation framework to move from idea to implementation and solve complex problems with creativity and clarity.

  • Communicating with Impact: Strengthen emotional intelligence and adapt your communication style to influence, align, and inspire others.

  • Building Alignment: Unite diverse stakeholders around shared goals and create the buy-in needed for successful, sustainable outcomes.

  • Storytelling for Influence: Craft and deliver compelling narratives that drive engagement, communicate value, and mobilize support for your ideas.

These are not just soft skills, they’re strategic leadership capabilities that help executives lead through uncertainty, build high-performing teams, and deliver results.

Each Bingham Fellows class includes approximately 45 senior leaders from a wide range of industries, sectors, and backgrounds. Participants are carefully selected to ensure a dynamic mix of perspectives and expertise.

Each cohort is intentionally balanced:

  • About half of participants bring fresh eyes –leaders without direct experience in the year’s topic, but with strong curiosity, collaborative skills, and interest in growing their capacity to lead change.

  • The other half bring subject-matter insight, offering valuable experience, institutional knowledge, or community ties related to the topic at hand.

This intentional diversity in experience ensures the work benefits from outside-the-box thinking, cross-sector collaboration, and meaningful peer learning – hallmarks of the Bingham Fellows experience.

When employers send leaders to participate in Bingham Fellows, they gain:

  • Stronger, More Strategic Leaders: Participants return with enhanced leadership skills that strengthen their ability to lead teams, innovate, navigate complexity, and drive results.
  • Community Visibility: Partnering in a community-facing program builds goodwill and reinforces your organization’s role as a civic leader. Project work led by your employee contributes to a stronger, more resilient Louisville.
  • Employee Engagement & Retention: Investing in purpose-driven development supports employee satisfaction, fulfillment, and loyalty.
  • Cross-Sector Connections: Participants build relationships with leaders from other industries and sectors—opening doors to partnerships and collaborations.

Bingham Fellows participants leave the program with:

  • Accelerated Leadership Growth: Build practical, high-value skills in innovation, collaboration, communication, change management, and complex problem-solving.
  • Applied Learning: Applied and experiential learning give a chance to develop and test leadership skills in real time—far beyond what a classroom or textbook could provide.
  • Expanded Influence: Be recognized as a changemaker with the tools—and the courage—to lead in uncertain and dynamic environments.
  • Enduring Relationships: Grow meaningful connections to a cross-sector network of influential leaders, building a network that lasts a lifetime
  • Tangible Impact: Develop a deep, systems-level understanding of one of Louisville’s most pressing issues and leave the program having contributed to a project that addresses a real-world challenge and advances the greater good.

Bingham Fellows is an 11-month experience that runs from January through November. Participants are expected to fully engage in both the structured program days and collaborative project work.

The program includes:

  • A mandatory opening session in January

  • A mandatory two-day retreat in May

  • One full-day program session each month (with two in February)

  • Time outside of class spent in small groups working on research, collaboration, and project implementation

Participants should review the full program calendar before applying to ensure they can make the commitment. While the schedule is designed to be manageable for senior-level professionals, meaningful participation outside of class is essential to the program’s success and your experience.

Tuition for Bingham Fellows is $5,200, which includes all program materials, facilitation, assessments, meals during program days, and a two-day overnight retreat.

Most participants are sponsored by their employers, who see this as a high-impact investment in leadership development, employee retention, and increased community visibility. The program delivers a strong return by equipping leaders with the skills, relationships, and insight to drive innovation and impact – both inside the organization and across the region.

Limited tuition assistance is available for nonprofit or small business leaders This can be requested when completing the online application.

Our selection committee considers experience, community service, responses to essay questions, and approval from your employer/supervisor. The application consists of three parts:

Applications are considered complete once all components of the application have been received by the Leadership Louisville Center. A selection committee determines which applicants will be invited to participate in the Bingham Fellows Program.

The Leadership Louisville Center programs have attendance policies designed to give everyone the best possible experience. Exceeding the allowed absences for your program will result in a review of your continued participation by the Leadership Louisville Center Board of Directors. At that point, you must petition the Board to review your status via a letter outlining the reasons for exceeding the allowed absences. The board chair will rule on these matters. Failure to petition the board will result in dismissal.

  • Full and partial days are counted. Any hours away from the program day will be tracked and 8 hours will add up to an absence.
  • Failure to attend the mandatory sessions in their entirety will result in automatic dismissal from the program and forfeiting of tuition.
  • When using an excused absence, please notify the program manager as far in advance as possible. In cases where you cannot provide advanced notice, day-of notification is helpful so staff will know who to expect.
  • Consult program calendars for dates of all mandatory events.

BINGHAM FELLOWS ATTENDANCE POLICY

  • The opening session of the program in January is mandatory in its entirety.
  • The two-day retreat in May is mandatory in its entirety.
  • Two excused absences, or equivalent hours, are allowed. A third absence will result in a review of your continued participation by the Leadership Louisville Center Board of Directors.
  • If approved to continue after a third absence, a fourth absence would result in automatic dismissal.
  • Three consecutive absences will result in automatic dismissal.

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